3 thoughts: SDSU 118, St. Katherine 35

The Aztecs', from left, Dakarai Allen, Aqeel Quinn, JJ O'Brien, and Xavier Thames have fun cheering on their teammates in the final minutes of the Aztecs game against St. Katherine College.
Hayne Palmour IV — UT San Diego

The Aztecs', from left, Dakarai Allen, Aqeel Quinn, JJ O'Brien, and Xavier Thames have fun cheering on their teammates in the final minutes of the Aztecs game against St. Katherine College.
/ UT San Diego

“The 1952 Aztecs beat Chapman College, 140-37, a 103-point margin. What made this one fun was that, in effect, we beat them twice that night. Scoreboards in those days went only to 99. So, late in the game, the Aztecs had a huge lead, when suddenly they were ‘losing’ after scoring a basket and the scoreboard read, 32-1.

“That’s when the crowd started to go wild. Could we win this game again? We were down by 31 points with little time remaining. And the Aztecs did rally to win, ‘40-37.’ Believe me, no one left that game early.”

2. How do you like him now? Early favorite for best Steve Fisher coaching move of the season: the one-game suspension for Winston Shepard on Dec. 18.

Fisher still won’t elaborate on what Shepard did. Nor will Shepard, who simply says, “You have to ask Coach.” Whatever happened, the punishment appears to have worked. Shepard has said, and done, all the right things.

In the two games since the suspension, he’s averaging 17.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in 23.5 minutes. He has seven assists and one turnover. He has five steals. He’s shooting 78.6 percent from the field (11 of 14) and has been to the line 20 times. He’s committed no fouls.

Does he have something to prove?

“Absolutely,” Shepard said after a career-high 21 points against St. Katherine. “I always feel I have something to prove, just with how it went when I came here and everything people were saying.”

3. Uh, oh: The nonconference season is essentially over, and the Mountain West currently ranks 10th nationally in RPI. Not good.

A year ago, it was first and got five bids into the NCAA Tournament. Individual teams can still move up and down in RPI, but conference RPI usually stays about the same since it balances out with everybody playing one another within the league.

What does that mean for the Mountain West? In the last five years, the 10th-rated conference in RPI has received two, two, three, two and two bids to the tournament.

Which is a problem for a Mountain West with five team that see themselves as NCAA Tournament material: SDSU, New Mexico, Boise State and UNLV all went last year, plus newcomer (and perennial tournament team) Utah State.